This is what the hedge funds that won 2014 looked like

A recent Citi survey found hedge fund profits down for the year
about $10 billion dollars – or 30 percent
– from the year prior, and indexes from
research firms eVestment and Preqin put hedge fund returns up
around 3 percent – just a
fraction of the S&P 500's 13.7 percent return.

But there were of course some winners.

Here are some common traits that last year's top performing funds
shared, courtesy of Preqin's 2015 Global Hedge Fund
Report:

Their core strategies were probably equity strategies.

Of the top 20 performers, 75 percent used equity strategies. Of
the top 10, equity strategy funds had a higher median return (59
percent) than any other type.

Preqin Hedge Fund Analyst

They've most likely been active for more than five years.

57 percent of all top performers had been active at least since
2009.

There's a good chance their manager was based in North America.

13 percent of top performing managers were based in New York, 4
percent in Canada, and 3 in California.